What was the significance of the temple veil being torn in two when Jesus died?

Immediately there are signs undeniably from God. The veil of the temple being torn in two from the top to the bottom is most significant. The veil is typical of "His flesh" (Heb.10:20). As soon as His flesh was rent in death, God bore witness of the value of this matchless death, the rending being from above. While still living, His flesh, as the veil, barred the way into the holiest for anyone else. Only His death could make the way into the holiest manifest. Through that veil, as being rent, believers are invited to enter with boldness today (Heb.10:19-20). Apart from its being rent, they could not dare to do this. Wonderful testimony to the ritualistic Jews!--for their ritual was certainly interrupted by this miraculous intervention of God. We are not told what the chief priests did about this.

But now all is laid open. By the blood of Christ the way is opened into the holiest of all. How significantly was this marked by the veil of the temple being rent in twain when Jesus hung upon the cross. Yea, Jesus himself is the way, the living way. If there be a veil, he is that veil; not to conceal anything of God behind it, but to bring out all that may be known of God to view. And here the worshippers once purged have constant liberty to enter.

But now all is laid open. By the blood of Christ the way is opened into the holiest of all. How significantly was this marked by the veil of the temple being rent in twain when Jesus hung upon the cross! Yea, Jesus Himself is the way, the living way. If there be a veil, He is that veil — not to conceal anything of God behind it, but to bring out all that may be known of God to view. And here the worshippers, once purged, have constant liberty to enter.

Immediately the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The veil separated the holy place from the holy of holies. It spoke, indeed, of the presence of God, but man shut out from God. Such was the character of the time of law. God present but man unable to draw near to God. The rending of the veil proclaimed that all was over with Judaism; but more it tells us that God can now in righteousness come out in grace with the good news of forgiveness for man, and that man can draw near to God on the ground of the precious blood.

The veil was rent at the crucifixion of the Lord. Its rending marked ― first, that Judaism of the past was over; secondly, that man had consummated his guilt, and stood face to face with God; thirdly, that God had disclosed Himself in perfect grace; and fourthly, that the sins of His people were swept away by the same stroke for ever. God and man are now face to face. For a saint, he is as white as snow; for a sinner, there he is in the presence of the richest grace of God, convicted by the light of God which reveals it, while it exposes him.

The blessed consequences of the atoning work are at once seen. God would straightway glorify His Son. The veil of the temple that separated the presence of God from man, that hid the Throne and barred the way of access into His presence, was now rent in twain from the top to the bottom — not drawn aside or uplifted, but completely rent — thus declaring it never again could be put back. Scripture tells us the veil pictured the flesh of our Lord how appropriate, then, that as His blessed body was rent for our sins, that which was a type of Himself — in His personal perfection, and a witness against all sin — should be rent in twain to show how completely our sins had been put away.

The efficacy of His death is presented to us in this Gospel in a double aspect. First, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. God, who had been always hidden behind the veil, discovered Himself completely by means of the death of Jesus. The entrance into the holy place is made manifest — a new and living way which God has consecrated for us through the veil. The entire Jewish system, the relations of man with God under its sway, its priesthood, all fell with the rending of the veil. Every one found himself in the presence of God without a veil between. The priests were to be always in His presence. But, by this same act, the sin, which would have made it impossible for us to stand there, was for the believer entirely put away from before God. The holy God, and the believer, cleansed from his sins, are brought together by the death of Christ. What love was that which accomplished this!

In the tabernacle God was shut up within the veil: on His part there was no coming out, and on the part of man there was no going in. Now the veil represented the flesh of Jesus (Heb. 10:20), therefore when on earth He spoke of His body as the temple (John 2:21) God was within the veil in the body of Jesus. On the cross this veil was rent. The death of Christ was the rending of the veil. And this came to light in the type; for the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (Matt. 27:51). In the execution of the judgment of sin upon the cross, all that God was came to light. His righteousness was there declared, but His love also was brought to light. God has come out to man in perfect love, and now man can go in to God by that way which has been dedicated through the veil. And by that precious blood we have boldness for entering, for it is not only the witness to us that our sins are gone, but it is also the great witness of the perfect love of God to us; so that, not only are our consciences purged, but our hearts are won, and God’s presence, which we so much dreaded, has become our eternal home, and nowhere in the universe are we so welcome.

I will ask you to notice a remarkable connection between the truths of the altar and of the mercy-seat. We pass instantly, as I may say, from the altar of burnt-offering, which speaks of the Cross, into the very presence of God at the mercy-seat in the inner sanctuary. Let us turn to a passage in the Gospel (Matt. 27:46, 50, 51) which presents this to us in a very striking way. Here we have connected with our Lord's giving up His life on the cross (the brazen altar), the rending of the veil, that which separated God from man. The veil represented the flesh of Christ, as we know, which, in His spotless purity and perfection was a witness of the distance of all men from God. Compare men with Him; it shows how absolutely they were away from God. You will remember that upon this inner veil were cherubim, which spoke of God's righteousness and judgment which bar the way to His presence. So, practically, as long as Christ was here in flesh, He was the judicial veil between man and God. Here was One who had access into God's presence, who lived in the joy of that presence, a witness that men are away from God and have no right to enter into the Divine presence. The life, and words, and works of our Lord proved how every one else was at an infinite distance from God.

How all that is changed when we come to Calvary! There we see One who, Himself sinless, was "made sin" for us — our iniquities being laid upon Him. God dealt with His holy Son as He should deal with an unholy, guilty sinner; and when Divine Justice thus dealt with our Substitute it brought forth that fearful cry of anguish which has echoed from that day to this: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!" Notice, that cry reaches the very throne of God: for, "the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom." Divine holiness and righteousness were fully satisfied; the separation between man and God — God in His infinite holiness, man in his unworthiness — is removed. The way into the presence of God is thus made manifest. Through the rent veil we can draw near into His presence. This is why we have spoken of the cross and the rent veil in closest connection. The throne of judgment, which would have banished man into the outer darkness for ever, becomes the sinner's refuge, through the blood sprinkled upon and before the mercy-seat, showing that God's claim and the sinner's need are both fully met by the work of God's beloved Son on the cross. In what a place of nearness to God the Cross has brought us! The line has reached from the poor sinner in his outside place to the very heart of God on His throne. Christ has opened the way, as Heb. 10:19-22 plainly declares: the veil is rent, the sanctuary is open to us.

The second thing is the rent veil. The blood of Christ has given us the title to approach; and in the next place we have "a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." Here again we have a contrast with the old dispensation. Thus in chap. 9 we read: "Into the second" (i.e., into the holy of holies, behind the veil) "went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost thus signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." etc. (vv. 7~9). The people were therefore entirely excluded; and this was because, as we have seen, it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. It would consequently have been certain death, by the judgment of God, had any one beside the high priest ventured inside that awful veil (Lev. 16:1-2; Num. 15, 16). But no sooner was the sacrifice of Christ consummated than the veil was rent from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51); for by His death He glorified God in every attribute of His character concerning the question of sin, and by that one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified, and the veil was therefore rent to signify that the way was now made open into the holiest of all. "For that which rent the veil in order to admit us has likewise put away the sin which shut us out." It is thus now the privilege of every believer, on the ground of the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, to enter at all times into the holiest of all — he has boldness to do so by the blood of Jesus.